U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks at the end of an election-night watch party Dec. 12 in Montgomery, Ala.

U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks at the end of an election-night watch party Dec. 12 in Montgomery, Ala. (Mike Stewart / Associated Press)

Commiserating and kvetching with a fellow writer Tuesday night, I confessed that it had been six weeks since my last opinion piece. I hadn’t been sure what to write, but mainly there was the issue of hope. News says, “This is the way things are,” and opinion writing often replies, “This is the way they could and should be.” Hope bridges the chasm between the present and an imagined future.

Supporters of President Trump pump up the crowd energy before a MAGA rally in Fountain Valley on June 3.

Supporters of President Trump pump up the crowd energy before a MAGA rally in Fountain Valley on June 3. (Los Angeles Times)

“Progressive” is a label thrown around carelessly at dinner tables, coffee shops, news desks, and anywhere else politics is discussed to identify a particular political affiliation. The term is generally used to refer to a person with a leftward-leaning bent — somewhere to the left of the Democratic Party’s traditional core.

When Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission — better known as the “gay wedding cake case” — first attracted national attention, it was viewed as a battle in the culture war between gay rights and religious freedom.

But unless you were lucky enough to be at the court, you’ll have to wait until Friday to listen to the justices’ questions and the lawyers’ answers. That’s when the court will post an audio recording of the arguments on its website.

Privacy advocates were heartened by Wednesday’s oral argument in the Supreme Court in Carpenter vs. United States, involving a challenge to the warrantless acquisition by the FBI of cellphone location records that helped convict a Michigan man of a number of armed robberies.